Pressure cooking

While riding into the mountains this afternoon we stopped by this tiny nipa shack for a few minutes of rest. There are areas in my country so remote that cooking is still done with the use of firewood. No fancy stoves and stainless counters, just a wooden table layered with sand and clay stands to hold the pots and pans black from soot. This is the little makeshift kitchen wherein they were boiling some cassava roots. I was curious as to why the pot's cover had a big rock on top and the lady said that it was to weigh down the lid so it doesn't open as the liquid inside gently simmers till the cassava becomes tender. A very ingenious pressure cooker I think.